always the right forecast
always the right forecast
yunho/changmin
pg-13
changmin can control the weather.
---
Changmin’s been able to control the weather since he was born, but he didn’t know it until he was about twelve years old. A girl he had a crush on invited him to her birthday party and he hoped and wished and prayed for sunshine all week so that they could spend a beautiful day together. When her birthday finally rolled around, everyone’s lawns in the tri-state region had been burned to a crisp.
New York saw its first tumbleweed that year.
---
It’s just any other day in his boring life as a commuter student, falling asleep standing up as the subway clanks and screeches along its tracks, taking him somewhere that makes him feel like he’s going nowhere.
But it’s always those unsuspecting, dull days that the brightest things happen, and that bright thing comes in the shape of a gorgeous man dressed in a gorgeous suit, stumbling around on the subway car. He bumps into Changmin and startles him awake, apologizing profusely for being clumsy, flailing around to grab onto a pole to help himself stand.
Changmin usually ignores people altogether but this new guy is just too cute to look away from. The corner of his mouth lifts in a polite smile and the other man beams back at him for it.
“I’m Yunho,” Yunho says, waving from about three inches away from Changmin’s face. Rush hour, what can you do? “Are the subways always this packed so early in the mornings? I just moved to New York about two days ago and it’s taking some getting used to…”
Changmin smiles politely again, this time with a little more honesty, nodding his head. “Can’t be helped. This is just how it is when everyone needs to get into Manhattan at once.”
Yunho nods and smiles at him, perfect teeth catching the artificial light, and Changmin smiles back, helpless to the niceness that just radiates off of Yunho.
He looks away eventually, at a loss as to what to say, and goes back to trying to sleep standing up, a smile etched permanently on his face for the rest of the trip. It isn’t until he gets off the subway that he realizes he probably should’ve asked for Yunho’s number, because when you’re living at a New York pace, a forty minute subway ride together is pretty much an entire date.
---
Changmin doesn’t like to tamper with the weather too much. He’ll bend it to fit his life only when he absolutely has to; for example, making sure that Friday during the day is nothing but blue sky and UV rays so that Yoochun can take his girlfriend on a picnic. But nighttime, of course, needs to suddenly be chilly as all hell and raining a bit so she’ll be cuddling into Yoochun’s side as they share an umbrella. Changmin doesn’t classify this as abusing his powers, more like he’s protecting his own sanity so he won’t have to listen to Yoochun bitch and complain about not having gotten any for the past three months.
Besides, if every day of the year had weather the way he wanted, namely gorgeous sunshine and hot summer weather until 4 p.m. in the afternoon when it suddenly started to snow, people would get mildly suspicious.
---
Changmin bumps into Yunho again, or rather, the other way around an exact week later in the same subway car. They make pleasant conversation, this time for a little longer, Changmin using all his brainpower to not stare too long at the way Yunho’s suit clings in all the right places. Except, either the pants are too tight, or Yunho is just an athlete, because every time Yunho moves around, his pants stretch and twist around strong thigh muscles, highlighted in vivid detail by the nice fabric.
“…here?” Yunho asks.
“…What,” Changmin says back intelligently, whipping his eyes back to Yunho’s face, flushing in embarrassment.
Yunho chuckles and Changmin feels a smile push its way to his lips before he realizes. “I said, it looks like you know everything there is to know about this city. Did you grow up here?”
“Ohhhh,” Changmin says, then blushes harder, feeling like he’s a dumb teenager all over again. “Yeah, I go to university in the city. One more year and then I’m out of here. I know it’s supposed to be all gorgeous and amazing and everything but if you’ve lived here all your life, it loses its shine, trust me.”
Yunho makes a thoughtful humming noise and nods at Changmin’s words. “Yeah, I basically think this is the most amazing place ever,” he admits with a huge grin, “it’s so full of life and beautiful. I only transferred here last week from Florida and it’s nice to be in a place that isn’t either burning your face off with sun or trying to destroy you with hurricanes.”
No hurricanes, Changmin says in his head, chuckling softly, totally enamoured in Yunho’s story. He misses his stop and runs off the subway car with a friendly wave, taking the subway back three stops, totally late for his first class.
The rest of the week is nothing but gorgeous, sunny weather, but not too hot. He doesn’t want Yunho’s gorgeous face burning off.
Changmin realizes he still hasn’t asked for Yunho’s number.
---
He only ends up seeing Yunho once a week, always on Wednesdays, always dressed in a handsome suit with an even handsomer smile gracing that chiselled face. They get to know each other pretty well considering it’s only a once-a-week thing. Changmin finds out that Yunho’s older than him by two years, fresh out of university, interning at a law office in New York to gather lots of experience before going to law school. He’s always loved a man with ambition and Yunho’s full of that, as well as more kindness than Changmin’s ever seen in one person, a great sense of humour, and the ability to talk and talk and talk about not much at all but captivate you in his stories anyway.
“How come I only see you on Wednesdays?” Changmin asks before he can help it, leaning closer to hear Yunho’s answer above the screeching of the subway tracks, probably closer than he really needs to.
“Oh, er, um…” Yunho says, blinking at Changmin’s close and gorgeous side profile, “I actually drive to work, but thought I could get a taste of how real New Yorkers live if I took the subway every once in a while. Glad I bumped into you all those weeks ago.”
The unspoken question hangs in the air, Changmin unwilling to request, Yunho too scared to venture. They turn to speaking of other things, like what Yunho’s planning to do over the weekend, Changmin silently making sure that there’s nothing but great weather so Yunho can go jogging and shopping without any problems.
---
The weather doesn’t always listen to him. One time, in middle school, a bully had pissed him off so bad that Changmin ended up going home to wish for giant fireball meteors to fall upon his enemy’s house. It hailed for three days straight and each hailstone was approximately the size of a softball. Changmin’s dad had ended up needing to buy new windows for their house as did every other household in a two mile radius.
Sometimes he’ll feel bad and it’ll rain until he’s happy again, sometimes it’ll just be bright sunshine because Changmin knows that sunshine always helps him cheer up when he’s feeling bad. It always depends on what his heart’s feeling, and in a way, that means he really has no control over the weather at all.
---
Changmin schemes. He schemes well because he is a self-certified genius in the ways of logic and reason and weather-controlling, nevermind that love has nothing to do with any of those things.
He stays up all night, writing down ways to get Yunho to stop driving and somehow take the subway more often. Taxis are expensive as hell and he doubts his hyung would really blow money like that. Buses are slow and even more packed in the mornings than the subway and Changmin doubts Yunho likes to be late for work. Biking would just be life threatening so that’s out of the question as well, not even mentioning rollerblading. He has to make it impossible to do all of these things.
---
Changmin brings around a lightning storm on Sunday night, willing it to concentrate on the roads that Yunho could take to get to work by car. He gets up early Monday morning to see on the news with triumph that a lot of the major roads are blocked off.
It figures that this means everyone’s going to be taking the subway since they can’t take buses or drive, and Changmin feels himself getting to know the people around him extra well on Monday. The worst part of all of it is, aside from the way he’s cringing and dying at all the germs around him, he sees Yunho’s adorably lost face through the subway window just as the train is pulling out of the station, just half a minute too late.
Tuesday is the same; Changmin watches with a childish pout on his face as Yunho comes into view through the subway car window just as they’re pulling away.
On Wednesday, Changmin greets Yunho in their normal spots on the subway, more crowded than usual because of the time it’s going to take to fix the roads. Yunho tells him about the crazy lightning storm and Changmin just nods wearily, refraining from the urge to facepalm.
By Thursday, the streets are fixed. Changmin takes the subway by himself and simmers quietly in spot, ignoring the fat, gray clouds that have come to crowd the sky with darkness.
---
He spends all weekend at home and schemes some more, needing something that won’t send everyone running to the subway but would still deter Yunho from driving. He sets his heart on torrential rains that would get car windshield wipers going like crazy and make the roads all congested with traffic.
Yunho doesn’t show up on Monday, not on Tuesday either, and Changmin’s pissed and humid from all the pouring rain by the time Wednesday rolls around.
“It reminds me of Florida!” Yunho declares to him with a smile, “The weather’s abnormally warm for February so I’ve just been getting up extra early to jog and rollerblade through the rain!”
Changmin doesn’t understand that at all, but he can’t do anything but smile back at Yunho’s constant happiness and silver linings, starting to feel a little defeated. On Thursday, it’s not even torrential rains because he wants it to be, it’s just pouring because he feels so helpless.
---
Once again, he spends all weekend scheming, deciding to let the weather go back to its normal coldness so Yunho stops jogging through the rain. He’ll catch death one day, of that Changmin is certain.
New York doesn’t really get a lot of heavy snowfall naturally and it helps that Changmin doesn’t like heavy snow. It’s pretty for all of thirty-four seconds before it all turns to brown sludge and splatters everywhere when cars drive by. Not to mention all the shovelling one has to do, and the difficulty of getting around by foot or other modes of transportation, and it clogs up traffic and slows everything down to a standstill.
It is the middle of March but Changmin doesn’t care. A blizzard starts up randomly on Sunday night and it snows so hard that when Changmin wakes up in the morning, his window is plastered with snow and he lives all the way on the tenth floor.
Everything in the city is closed, all events cancelled. It’s the heaviest snowfall in the history of record taking and Changmin should just be grateful that his internet hasn’t been knocked out because his electricity is long gone.
He doesn’t even get to see Yunho on Wednesday that week once the roads are cleared and everything’s back in commission. He forgot that it was Spring Break.
---
It’s a whole month later, after it’s become painfully obvious to everyone around them that he and Yunho are attracted to each other, that Changmin finally finds the nerve to ask.
“Do you want me to take the subway more often?” Yunho asks, a bit exasperated, a lot nervous right as Changmin opens his mouth.
“Do you want to take the subway more often?” Changmin requests.
They stare at each other for a little bit and Changmin hears snickers and muffled laughter from the people around them. His cheeks heat considerably.
“What? Um, yes.” Yunho nods to clarify. “Yes.”
“Well, okay then,” Changmin says, “I meant to ask you first. Actually, I meant to ask you a month ago, but I don’t know why you had to ask me two seconds before I asked you the same thing.” He says the words petulantly, embarrassed and shy, turning even redder when he hears more muffled laughter from behind.
Yunho pouts and it’s definitely a look Changmin wants to see more often. “I was- I meant to ask you a month ago as well if you wanted my company but I didn’t know if you would actually want me to or if…you know, I’ve been misreading…us. You.”
“Well,” Changmin says. He stops at that and stares blankly at Yunho’s face, mouth dry and head spinning. “Well,” he repeats.
“You look very well,” Yunho answers, and literally bangs his forehead into the pole he’s holding on to. “I meant you look fine, you are very fine.”
Changmin turns beet red and starts laughing, giggling at first and then just full out laughing when he hears people around them laughing as well. The tension drains and Yunho grins at him, the two of them laughing together, finally more comfortable.
“Yah, hyung,” he says in fluid hangul, “can I have your number? I’ve been meaning to ask since a while ago.”
“Sure,” Yunho replies, handing his phone over and taking Changmin’s, “and I’ll be seeing you tomorrow. I bought a MetroPass this morning so I could take the subway from now on.” With you, he leaves out.
And it’s really that simple.
---
Changmin’s never really been an outgoing guy, always too shy to put himself out there, but he’s the one that calls Yunho first. He had just bombed a chemistry test, of that he’s (somewhat not) sure, and he’s in dire need of comfort, nevermind Yoochun who lives two floors below him.
They talk for an hour and a half as if it’s the most natural thing in the world and Changmin doesn’t feel the time pass until he feels his stomach grumble. Apologizing profusely for holding Yunho up, Changmin ends the call with a simple “see you tomorrow!” and makes himself dinner, bringing it downstairs to Yoochun’s place because he feels too alone by himself.
“In love?” Yoochun asks with a sleazy grin.
“Shut up,” Changmin snaps, and that’s the best answer Yoochun could’ve hoped for.
The phone calls become a frequent thing, Changmin looking forward to them more and more, especially as he starts writing his admissions essays for med school. The older man is nothing but helpful and encouraging and Changmin always goes to bed with a smile on his face. Yunho calls a lot more than Changmin calls him, partly because he can’t keep up with Changmin’s texts, mostly because Changmin’s shy and Yunho knows that.
Yunho is nothing but thoughtful and wonderful and graceful and lots of other -fuls, Changmin thinks. Roses go into full bloom outside and the greenery’s never been greener.
The weather’s no longer psycho, Yoochun points out, nudging Changmin hard in the ribs every time he comes over. In fact, it looks like the best weather New York’s had in decades. Yoochun secretly folds a thousand paper cranes and wishes for Yunho to never leave Changmin’s side.
---
Changmin’s not sure who asks who out first but he’s so nervous over dinner that he hardly says three words the entire time. So terrified that he had messed it up, he can only jump when a clap of thunder scares the crap out of him, moaning with despair when it suddenly starts pouring.
“Hey, you okay?” Yunho asks with a bright smile, pressing both of them flat against a brick wall, hiding under a roof overhang. The streets are void of people in less than two minutes, everyone ducking into stores and buildings to hide from the rain.
“I- I’m sorry,” Changmin mumbles, pulling at his cardigan sleeves, “I know I’m not being very good company. I’m…I get really nervous around you.”
“What for? We know each other so well.”
Changmin feels his cheeks heat and casts his gaze to the ground. “I’m just nervous…” he mumbles, “…because I like you,” he whispers even quieter.
“Oh,” Yunho replies, and Changmin sighs to himself. “Oh,” Yunho repeats, reaching over with no regards to personal space to tip Changmin’s chin up, smiling into the younger man’s eyes. “That’s good, because I like you too.”
“…Oh,” Changmin says numbly.
“But wasn’t that obvious?” Yunho asks, smiling even wider as the winds pick up and blasts the rain everywhere, soaking both of them through and through, thunder and lightning going haywire, “I did ask you out, after all. And I don’t know if you’re the kind of guy who kisses on first dates, but I’m going to kiss you now.”
No, Changmin isn’t the kind of guy to kiss on first dates, just like he’s not the kind of guy to put out on third dates, but Yunho just might get luckier.
By the time his head stops spinning and his heart starts beating again, Changmin’s already pulling Yunho into kiss number two, then three and seven and fifteen, making out wet and hot under the overhang as the sky clears and all the stars come out.
Yunho is just a whole bunch of firsts and too many superlatives, so Changmin’s not surprised that it’s the clearest and most beautiful night New York has had since ever.
---
School finishes in early May and Changmin spends almost a week at Yunho’s place, mostly just in bed with the older man, talking and laughing and feeding each other, but most importantly, making love. He doesn’t know if he’s ever felt so complete or so happy but Changmin finds himself not giving a damn about much of anything as long as Yunho is at his side. It’s irrational and frightening in a lot of ways but the second Yunho turns to him with a smile, Changmin’s entire mind goes blank of any troubles or worries, his heart kicking into overdrive at an unhealthy pace, tripping over beats and stuttering as love chokes off his breath.
Falling in love is so calm and unexciting, Changmin thinks. They were strangers that met on the subway, became friends, went on dates until they counted themselves as a dating couple, then slept together. It’s so unassuming and normal and mundane that he boggles to think of how deep he’s in already, how utterly helpless he is to Yunho’s smile and touch.
---
“Changmin-ah, we need to talk.”
Soap opera music starts playing in Changmin’s head and he looks up from where his head is pillowed on Yunho’s chest. Those words have never brought good things, in television and in real life, and Changmin stays silent, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
Yunho sits up and pulls him into a hug, chin settled on the younger man’s shoulder. “I got into law school,” he starts off.
“That’s great,” Changmin says immediately, kissing Yunho’s ear, fingers clenching on his shoulders. It’s a defensive, quiet plea, begging Yunho not to go far, words he could never bring himself to say.
“The competition was crazy and I didn’t think I could get in, but I did,” Yunho continues, “and I just can’t turn the offer down. You know how much I wanted to get into law school and I’ve already taken a year off and I really-”
“Just tell me where.”
“Stanford.”
“That’s wonderful,” Changmin whispers after a long, uncomfortable silence. “I’m really happy for you.”
“In California.”
“I wish you all the best.”
“Changmin,” Yunho says, almost pleads, pulling back to look into Changmin’s eyes. “Changmin, don’t.”
“You’re going to be just fine,” Changmin says, turning his face away. “The best lawyer ever.”
“I love you.”
Changmin’s eyes can’t help but go back to Yunho’s face, body almost shutting down to see a bright sheen of tears in Yunho’s eyes. “When’s your flight?”
Yunho bites his lip in frustration and reaches out, his shoulders sagging in defeat when Changmin slides off the bed altogether, hand closing around nothing. “August third.”
“So a month and a half away.”
“Changmin, please, I love you.”
Changmin shakes his head, shrugging his shoulders as he pulls his clothes on, pulling them out from under Yunho’s, finding them scattered all over the bedroom floor. Love has never looked more like a battleground and there’s no one here to help bandage his wounds, not when the only person who can is the one who’s causing them. “Don’t worry,” he says with a shaky smile, “even if I lose you, I’ll get you back.”
“You won’t lose me-”
“Yes I will,” Changmin cuts in, looking at the corner of Yunho’s mattress, “you’re leaving, aren’t you?”
To that, Yunho has no reply, and he can only watch helplessly as Changmin disappears out his door. The younger man doesn’t pick up any of his calls, doesn’t respond to any of his texts, and Yunho finally falls into an exhausted sleep at around 4 in the morning, phone clutched tightly in his hand.
Changmin doesn’t cry until his phone stops ringing for good, walking outside to wander aimlessly, wondering what to do with a broken heart. He’s the living definition of pathetic fallacy as the skies cloud over and the rain suddenly comes down in torrents, drenching him to the bone within seconds. It’s flash rain, coming just a beat slower than the hurt, and Changmin finds himself inside the park he and Yunho went to for a date weeks ago. He finds the exact same bench Yunho had kissed him on and folds into himself right there, crying and crying and crying until the tears no longer come, tilting his face up to the pouring rain to feel all the cold tears he’s meaning to shed.
---
Changmin finally picks up his phone a week later and they meet up at Changmin’s place. Yunho doesn’t want to but agrees to Changmin’s request that they break up on August 3rd, because it’s meaningless to love someone when there’s no way to love them across the country. Changmin doesn’t believe in long distance relationships just like Yunho doesn’t believe in giving up what you love most in life but he doesn’t want to argue with the younger man when he’s the one that’s leaving.
They make love often, talk of the future like nothing’s wrong, laugh and goof off together like they always have. Yunho almost asks Changmin to come with him every single day but always swallows the words back, knows that Changmin can’t drop everything just for him.
August first comes and goes and Changmin helps Yunho pack, refusing to cry in the older man’s presence. He catches sight of Yunho’s teary eyes and bops him on the head, smiling as strong as he can, hugging him tight.
“I don’t want to break up,” Yunho whispers into Changmin’s neck, “I love you.”
Those three words again. “It’s for the best,” Changmin says through the lump in his throat, blinking rapidly, “who knows what kind of people you’ll meet in California?”
There’s a long silence and Yunho finally lets go, pulling away to look into Changmin’s eyes, wiping at his own. “You’re always the logical, rational one, even to the end, huhn?” he asks with a tinge of bitterness, “Always doing what makes the most sense.”
Changmin feels his heart cramp with pain and smiles instead, shrugging helplessly. “We had a good run.”
“Changmin-ah…” Yunho whispers, “if I didn’t know you, I’d rather not know.”
They look at each other in silence and Changmin turns away first, feeling so suffocated by love and pain for the other man that all he can do is cry softly, wiping at his eyes like a child. Yunho collects him in a hug and Changmin clings on all night, wondering why he had to fall into something that he’s taken care not to say or explain to Yunho, and yet, the older man seems to know anyway.
---
Yunho’s friend Jaejoong sends him off to the airport and even Yoochun goes. No amount of pleading could get Changmin out of the apartment because nothing could make him willingly go to see off the man who has his heart as if he’s okay with him leaving at all.
He’s thought weeks and weeks about this, how he could delay Yunho’s plane, odd weather reports be damned. New York could see heavy snowfall throughout all of summer, and if that doesn’t ground the plane, he’ll have thunder and lightning storms every single day and night so that not a single flight will get out of the state.
But he can’t hold Yunho back from something so great, no matter how much he wants to. Yunho deserves better than that.
Changmin watches from his window as a small plane streaks slowly across the sky, endless blue without a single cloud in sight. It’s the perfect weather for flying.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Changmin whispers, fingertips pressed to the glass, four confessions for every one of Yunho’s that he never replied to, “I love you, I always have, I love you.”
---
There are a few emails in the beginning, Yunho always sending them once every two weeks to let Changmin know that he’s doing well. A new address comes in case Changmin wants to visit, random pictures as well: Yunho’s new house, the beach, Rodeo Drive, Yunho with a pimp hat on and a dorky smile to counteract its effects. Changmin usually replies with something shorter and less personal and halfway through the year, the emails stop coming altogether.
He has all the pictures saved on his computer in a folder he’s labelled with a simple heart.
Changmin doesn’t know how many tears he’s shed anymore. Yunho isn’t his first love but Yunho is his first real love, the one that really counts, and he knows that Yoochun has begged over the phone for Yunho to come back to New York, if not for Changmin’s sake, then at least for everyone else’s. It doesn’t rain every single day but it is dark and cloudy endlessly. Changmin tries his best for a spot of sunshine and it lasts all of three minutes in the early mornings when he’s trapped between dreams and reality, still asleep enough to reach over to feel for Yunho’s warmth on the other side of the bed.
He works his ass off all year, handing in all of those admissions essays he’s stayed up late to write, from back when he had Yunho’s constant encouragement to help him along. Graduation comes and goes and he goes partying with Yoochun and Jaejoong and Junsu, letting loose all his frustrations and pain by getting piss ass drunk, hammered, sloshed, just completely smashed out of his face.
Jaejoong hangs up the call he’s been on for the past hour and loosens Changmin’s deathgrip around his neck. “Yah, that was Yunho.”
“Nng,” Changmin grunts, then blinks as recognition slowly filters through his brain, sobering him up in seconds. “What did he say?”
“Congratulations.”
Changmin spends the rest of the night clinging to Yoochun instead, sobbing soundlessly, so pitiful that they all end up laughing so hard they fall on their asses. Changmin’s hiccupping and laughing and crying, falling everywhere with tears in a crazy mess all over his face, and asks Jaejoong right before he passes out to help him pack for sunny California.
---
Yoochun sends Changmin off at the airport by waving a white hanky, a dare he lost to Jaejoong in a drinking match Changmin had been unconscious for, actually using it after a while to blow his nose and wipe his face. Jaejoong rolls his eyes and claps Changmin hard on the back, hugging him tight, wishing him all the best.
“No logic or theories or reason,” Jaejoong says firmly, holding onto Changmin’s shoulders. Even though he has to tilt his face up just to look into Changmin’s eyes, Changmin feels incredibly small.
“None,” he agrees softly.
“Just take his hand, hold your breath, and never let go, because you’ve lost him once and you’ll get him back but that’s not something you can leave to chance.”
“Yes hyung.”
“I’ll come back to haunt you if you fail.”
Changmin blinks. “Are you terminally ill and fated for death in the near future?”
Jaejoong punches him hard in the arm. “You piss me off and my blood pressure’s going to be the end of me, that’s what!” He laughs rich and affectionate, ruffling Changmin’s hair, and Changmin smirks when Jaejoong has to stand on his toes to do it. “Come back and visit, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Sure,” Jaejoong says with a roll of the eyes, “I believe you.”
“Bye hyung, thanks for everything.”
“We love you too, Changmin-ah.”
Changmin only turns back once as he walks through security with his luggage, his heart at peace to see Yoochun’s miserably smiling face and Jaejoong’s turned back, smiling wide as Yoochun reaches out to Jaejoong to share his snotty hanky.
---
The captain makes an announcement on the intercom once they’re in the air that they’re headed into a few storm clouds so there may be turbulence. Changmin stares out the window and glares until the clouds go away and another announcement comes on ten minutes later to apologize for the slight visual confusion.
The passengers all look a little uneasy and Changmin just smiles serenely out the window, fluffing the clouds up as he makes the day warmer.
---
Nobody picks him up at the airport, obviously, and Changmin hands the taxi driver the address that Yunho emailed him almost a year ago, hoping that the older man hasn’t moved. He’s finally starting to get anxious and the clear, sunny day suddenly turns partly cloudy, and once Changmin actually arrives at Yunho’s doorstep, there are ominous thunder rolls in the distance.
The door opens just as he brings his hand up to knock and Changmin literally stops breathing at the sight before him. Yunho stands there in a simple black tank top and sweats, dark frames sitting on a high nose, eyes wide with confusion and surprise.
“Changmin?” he asks, dropping the popsicle he had been eating right on the front steps.
“Who is it?” A decidedly female voice calls from inside and Changmin turns on his heels, pulling his luggage with him, walking away as fast as he can.
---
Yunho stares after Changmin for a good minute and a half, just watching a retreating back until his friend from study group walks up to ask who it was. He just huffs with exasperation and runs out of the house to chase after the younger man, running down the street in his socks.
“Changmin!” he yells, growling when Changmin only makes those impossibly long legs walk even faster, “Damn it Changmin, will you just wait?!”
He ends up having to sprint and catch Changmin by the arm before they can come to a stop, all of his angry words dying and disappearing once he sees the tears running down Changmin’s cheeks.
“I’m telling you now that you misunderstood,” Yunho says plainly.
“What, that a year can take you really far?” Changmin asks, laughing bitterly, “I should’ve known. You’re too perfect to stay on the market for a whole year, huhn?”
“You think I’m perfect?” Yunho jumps when a loud crack of thunder sounds. “Changmin-ah, she’s-” He groans in exasperation when a sheet of rain suddenly pours over their heads. “She’s from my study group!” he hollers, “you know, the kind of person you can be friends with without becoming romantically or sexually involved? Friends, remember? Those things. Friennnnnnds.” Yunho knows he’s being kind of mean but Changmin had been the one who had wanted to break up. “Come inside with me!”
“What for?” Changmin mumbles, hoping against hope, “Isn’t it too much of me to ask you to take me back?”
“What part of ‘I love you’ do you not understand?”
Changmin looks up hesitantly, his mind immediately wiping blank of all thoughts as soon as he looks into Yunho’s eyes. “Still, even now?”
“Especially now,” Yunho replies, walking closer until they’re pressed together, wanting to shield Changmin from the rain, “I love you. Please come home?”
There’s only one beat of silence before Jaejoong’s words echo through his brain. “I am home,” Changmin whispers and drops his luggage to cup Yunho’s cheeks, wiping away the uncertainty he sees in the older man’s face, dragging the only love he’s ever really known into a kiss he’d be glad to drown in.
He ignores the way the rain stops and rainbows start popping out left and right, but appreciates it when a column of sunshine cuts through the clouds to spotlight on the two of them.
---
Yunho sends his study group home and drags Changmin’s suitcase to the balcony, taking out all of the younger man’s clothes to hang to dry when they can’t all fit in the dryer. He gets through showing the kitchen and the set of couple mugs he had bought just in case Changmin came to visit before Changmin pulls him to the bedroom where they stay for most of the week.
There’s a lot of making up and making out and making love and Changmin easily calls the place home.
“You know,” Yunho murmurs into Changmin’s hair, “you broke my heart back in New York.”
“I know,” Changmin replies, kissing Yunho’s neck as he wiggles a bit to get impossibly closer, using very little of Yunho’s king-sized mattress, “I broke my own heart too.”
Yunho runs his fingers through Changmin’s thick hair and smiles when his lover mewls with pleasure, kissing the tip of Changmin’s nose affectionately. “I’m glad you got into Stanford’s medical program. You’re a genius, you know that? And now we can be together for all kinds of forever.”
“Birds of a feather.” Changmin laughs softly when Yunho gives him an adorably confused look. “Nevermind, just give me a kiss.”
Yunho complies readily, giving Changmin far more than just one, holding him tight and safe. “So when are you finally going to tell me?”
“That I love you?” Changmin smiles and pulls Yunho in for a few more kisses. “Right now, I’m telling you right now. I love you. I love you I love you I love you I love you!”
“And that’s why you chased me all the way across the country to show up on my doorstep, right?”
Changmin laughs and pulls Yunho in for a long, sweet kiss, blushing as he nods. “What can I say? You’re my sunshine.”
---
so...i'm totally in a writing slump (cough 2 months of nothing cough), so i apologize if that was boring/awkward/stilted. rofl. oh well, i'm just trying to write again. 8D and i still owe 239487324 people fic, whee. 8DDDD
yunho/changmin
pg-13
changmin can control the weather.
---
Changmin’s been able to control the weather since he was born, but he didn’t know it until he was about twelve years old. A girl he had a crush on invited him to her birthday party and he hoped and wished and prayed for sunshine all week so that they could spend a beautiful day together. When her birthday finally rolled around, everyone’s lawns in the tri-state region had been burned to a crisp.
New York saw its first tumbleweed that year.
---
It’s just any other day in his boring life as a commuter student, falling asleep standing up as the subway clanks and screeches along its tracks, taking him somewhere that makes him feel like he’s going nowhere.
But it’s always those unsuspecting, dull days that the brightest things happen, and that bright thing comes in the shape of a gorgeous man dressed in a gorgeous suit, stumbling around on the subway car. He bumps into Changmin and startles him awake, apologizing profusely for being clumsy, flailing around to grab onto a pole to help himself stand.
Changmin usually ignores people altogether but this new guy is just too cute to look away from. The corner of his mouth lifts in a polite smile and the other man beams back at him for it.
“I’m Yunho,” Yunho says, waving from about three inches away from Changmin’s face. Rush hour, what can you do? “Are the subways always this packed so early in the mornings? I just moved to New York about two days ago and it’s taking some getting used to…”
Changmin smiles politely again, this time with a little more honesty, nodding his head. “Can’t be helped. This is just how it is when everyone needs to get into Manhattan at once.”
Yunho nods and smiles at him, perfect teeth catching the artificial light, and Changmin smiles back, helpless to the niceness that just radiates off of Yunho.
He looks away eventually, at a loss as to what to say, and goes back to trying to sleep standing up, a smile etched permanently on his face for the rest of the trip. It isn’t until he gets off the subway that he realizes he probably should’ve asked for Yunho’s number, because when you’re living at a New York pace, a forty minute subway ride together is pretty much an entire date.
---
Changmin doesn’t like to tamper with the weather too much. He’ll bend it to fit his life only when he absolutely has to; for example, making sure that Friday during the day is nothing but blue sky and UV rays so that Yoochun can take his girlfriend on a picnic. But nighttime, of course, needs to suddenly be chilly as all hell and raining a bit so she’ll be cuddling into Yoochun’s side as they share an umbrella. Changmin doesn’t classify this as abusing his powers, more like he’s protecting his own sanity so he won’t have to listen to Yoochun bitch and complain about not having gotten any for the past three months.
Besides, if every day of the year had weather the way he wanted, namely gorgeous sunshine and hot summer weather until 4 p.m. in the afternoon when it suddenly started to snow, people would get mildly suspicious.
---
Changmin bumps into Yunho again, or rather, the other way around an exact week later in the same subway car. They make pleasant conversation, this time for a little longer, Changmin using all his brainpower to not stare too long at the way Yunho’s suit clings in all the right places. Except, either the pants are too tight, or Yunho is just an athlete, because every time Yunho moves around, his pants stretch and twist around strong thigh muscles, highlighted in vivid detail by the nice fabric.
“…here?” Yunho asks.
“…What,” Changmin says back intelligently, whipping his eyes back to Yunho’s face, flushing in embarrassment.
Yunho chuckles and Changmin feels a smile push its way to his lips before he realizes. “I said, it looks like you know everything there is to know about this city. Did you grow up here?”
“Ohhhh,” Changmin says, then blushes harder, feeling like he’s a dumb teenager all over again. “Yeah, I go to university in the city. One more year and then I’m out of here. I know it’s supposed to be all gorgeous and amazing and everything but if you’ve lived here all your life, it loses its shine, trust me.”
Yunho makes a thoughtful humming noise and nods at Changmin’s words. “Yeah, I basically think this is the most amazing place ever,” he admits with a huge grin, “it’s so full of life and beautiful. I only transferred here last week from Florida and it’s nice to be in a place that isn’t either burning your face off with sun or trying to destroy you with hurricanes.”
No hurricanes, Changmin says in his head, chuckling softly, totally enamoured in Yunho’s story. He misses his stop and runs off the subway car with a friendly wave, taking the subway back three stops, totally late for his first class.
The rest of the week is nothing but gorgeous, sunny weather, but not too hot. He doesn’t want Yunho’s gorgeous face burning off.
Changmin realizes he still hasn’t asked for Yunho’s number.
---
He only ends up seeing Yunho once a week, always on Wednesdays, always dressed in a handsome suit with an even handsomer smile gracing that chiselled face. They get to know each other pretty well considering it’s only a once-a-week thing. Changmin finds out that Yunho’s older than him by two years, fresh out of university, interning at a law office in New York to gather lots of experience before going to law school. He’s always loved a man with ambition and Yunho’s full of that, as well as more kindness than Changmin’s ever seen in one person, a great sense of humour, and the ability to talk and talk and talk about not much at all but captivate you in his stories anyway.
“How come I only see you on Wednesdays?” Changmin asks before he can help it, leaning closer to hear Yunho’s answer above the screeching of the subway tracks, probably closer than he really needs to.
“Oh, er, um…” Yunho says, blinking at Changmin’s close and gorgeous side profile, “I actually drive to work, but thought I could get a taste of how real New Yorkers live if I took the subway every once in a while. Glad I bumped into you all those weeks ago.”
The unspoken question hangs in the air, Changmin unwilling to request, Yunho too scared to venture. They turn to speaking of other things, like what Yunho’s planning to do over the weekend, Changmin silently making sure that there’s nothing but great weather so Yunho can go jogging and shopping without any problems.
---
The weather doesn’t always listen to him. One time, in middle school, a bully had pissed him off so bad that Changmin ended up going home to wish for giant fireball meteors to fall upon his enemy’s house. It hailed for three days straight and each hailstone was approximately the size of a softball. Changmin’s dad had ended up needing to buy new windows for their house as did every other household in a two mile radius.
Sometimes he’ll feel bad and it’ll rain until he’s happy again, sometimes it’ll just be bright sunshine because Changmin knows that sunshine always helps him cheer up when he’s feeling bad. It always depends on what his heart’s feeling, and in a way, that means he really has no control over the weather at all.
---
Changmin schemes. He schemes well because he is a self-certified genius in the ways of logic and reason and weather-controlling, nevermind that love has nothing to do with any of those things.
He stays up all night, writing down ways to get Yunho to stop driving and somehow take the subway more often. Taxis are expensive as hell and he doubts his hyung would really blow money like that. Buses are slow and even more packed in the mornings than the subway and Changmin doubts Yunho likes to be late for work. Biking would just be life threatening so that’s out of the question as well, not even mentioning rollerblading. He has to make it impossible to do all of these things.
---
Changmin brings around a lightning storm on Sunday night, willing it to concentrate on the roads that Yunho could take to get to work by car. He gets up early Monday morning to see on the news with triumph that a lot of the major roads are blocked off.
It figures that this means everyone’s going to be taking the subway since they can’t take buses or drive, and Changmin feels himself getting to know the people around him extra well on Monday. The worst part of all of it is, aside from the way he’s cringing and dying at all the germs around him, he sees Yunho’s adorably lost face through the subway window just as the train is pulling out of the station, just half a minute too late.
Tuesday is the same; Changmin watches with a childish pout on his face as Yunho comes into view through the subway car window just as they’re pulling away.
On Wednesday, Changmin greets Yunho in their normal spots on the subway, more crowded than usual because of the time it’s going to take to fix the roads. Yunho tells him about the crazy lightning storm and Changmin just nods wearily, refraining from the urge to facepalm.
By Thursday, the streets are fixed. Changmin takes the subway by himself and simmers quietly in spot, ignoring the fat, gray clouds that have come to crowd the sky with darkness.
---
He spends all weekend at home and schemes some more, needing something that won’t send everyone running to the subway but would still deter Yunho from driving. He sets his heart on torrential rains that would get car windshield wipers going like crazy and make the roads all congested with traffic.
Yunho doesn’t show up on Monday, not on Tuesday either, and Changmin’s pissed and humid from all the pouring rain by the time Wednesday rolls around.
“It reminds me of Florida!” Yunho declares to him with a smile, “The weather’s abnormally warm for February so I’ve just been getting up extra early to jog and rollerblade through the rain!”
Changmin doesn’t understand that at all, but he can’t do anything but smile back at Yunho’s constant happiness and silver linings, starting to feel a little defeated. On Thursday, it’s not even torrential rains because he wants it to be, it’s just pouring because he feels so helpless.
---
Once again, he spends all weekend scheming, deciding to let the weather go back to its normal coldness so Yunho stops jogging through the rain. He’ll catch death one day, of that Changmin is certain.
New York doesn’t really get a lot of heavy snowfall naturally and it helps that Changmin doesn’t like heavy snow. It’s pretty for all of thirty-four seconds before it all turns to brown sludge and splatters everywhere when cars drive by. Not to mention all the shovelling one has to do, and the difficulty of getting around by foot or other modes of transportation, and it clogs up traffic and slows everything down to a standstill.
It is the middle of March but Changmin doesn’t care. A blizzard starts up randomly on Sunday night and it snows so hard that when Changmin wakes up in the morning, his window is plastered with snow and he lives all the way on the tenth floor.
Everything in the city is closed, all events cancelled. It’s the heaviest snowfall in the history of record taking and Changmin should just be grateful that his internet hasn’t been knocked out because his electricity is long gone.
He doesn’t even get to see Yunho on Wednesday that week once the roads are cleared and everything’s back in commission. He forgot that it was Spring Break.
---
It’s a whole month later, after it’s become painfully obvious to everyone around them that he and Yunho are attracted to each other, that Changmin finally finds the nerve to ask.
“Do you want me to take the subway more often?” Yunho asks, a bit exasperated, a lot nervous right as Changmin opens his mouth.
“Do you want to take the subway more often?” Changmin requests.
They stare at each other for a little bit and Changmin hears snickers and muffled laughter from the people around them. His cheeks heat considerably.
“What? Um, yes.” Yunho nods to clarify. “Yes.”
“Well, okay then,” Changmin says, “I meant to ask you first. Actually, I meant to ask you a month ago, but I don’t know why you had to ask me two seconds before I asked you the same thing.” He says the words petulantly, embarrassed and shy, turning even redder when he hears more muffled laughter from behind.
Yunho pouts and it’s definitely a look Changmin wants to see more often. “I was- I meant to ask you a month ago as well if you wanted my company but I didn’t know if you would actually want me to or if…you know, I’ve been misreading…us. You.”
“Well,” Changmin says. He stops at that and stares blankly at Yunho’s face, mouth dry and head spinning. “Well,” he repeats.
“You look very well,” Yunho answers, and literally bangs his forehead into the pole he’s holding on to. “I meant you look fine, you are very fine.”
Changmin turns beet red and starts laughing, giggling at first and then just full out laughing when he hears people around them laughing as well. The tension drains and Yunho grins at him, the two of them laughing together, finally more comfortable.
“Yah, hyung,” he says in fluid hangul, “can I have your number? I’ve been meaning to ask since a while ago.”
“Sure,” Yunho replies, handing his phone over and taking Changmin’s, “and I’ll be seeing you tomorrow. I bought a MetroPass this morning so I could take the subway from now on.” With you, he leaves out.
And it’s really that simple.
---
Changmin’s never really been an outgoing guy, always too shy to put himself out there, but he’s the one that calls Yunho first. He had just bombed a chemistry test, of that he’s (somewhat not) sure, and he’s in dire need of comfort, nevermind Yoochun who lives two floors below him.
They talk for an hour and a half as if it’s the most natural thing in the world and Changmin doesn’t feel the time pass until he feels his stomach grumble. Apologizing profusely for holding Yunho up, Changmin ends the call with a simple “see you tomorrow!” and makes himself dinner, bringing it downstairs to Yoochun’s place because he feels too alone by himself.
“In love?” Yoochun asks with a sleazy grin.
“Shut up,” Changmin snaps, and that’s the best answer Yoochun could’ve hoped for.
The phone calls become a frequent thing, Changmin looking forward to them more and more, especially as he starts writing his admissions essays for med school. The older man is nothing but helpful and encouraging and Changmin always goes to bed with a smile on his face. Yunho calls a lot more than Changmin calls him, partly because he can’t keep up with Changmin’s texts, mostly because Changmin’s shy and Yunho knows that.
Yunho is nothing but thoughtful and wonderful and graceful and lots of other -fuls, Changmin thinks. Roses go into full bloom outside and the greenery’s never been greener.
The weather’s no longer psycho, Yoochun points out, nudging Changmin hard in the ribs every time he comes over. In fact, it looks like the best weather New York’s had in decades. Yoochun secretly folds a thousand paper cranes and wishes for Yunho to never leave Changmin’s side.
---
Changmin’s not sure who asks who out first but he’s so nervous over dinner that he hardly says three words the entire time. So terrified that he had messed it up, he can only jump when a clap of thunder scares the crap out of him, moaning with despair when it suddenly starts pouring.
“Hey, you okay?” Yunho asks with a bright smile, pressing both of them flat against a brick wall, hiding under a roof overhang. The streets are void of people in less than two minutes, everyone ducking into stores and buildings to hide from the rain.
“I- I’m sorry,” Changmin mumbles, pulling at his cardigan sleeves, “I know I’m not being very good company. I’m…I get really nervous around you.”
“What for? We know each other so well.”
Changmin feels his cheeks heat and casts his gaze to the ground. “I’m just nervous…” he mumbles, “…because I like you,” he whispers even quieter.
“Oh,” Yunho replies, and Changmin sighs to himself. “Oh,” Yunho repeats, reaching over with no regards to personal space to tip Changmin’s chin up, smiling into the younger man’s eyes. “That’s good, because I like you too.”
“…Oh,” Changmin says numbly.
“But wasn’t that obvious?” Yunho asks, smiling even wider as the winds pick up and blasts the rain everywhere, soaking both of them through and through, thunder and lightning going haywire, “I did ask you out, after all. And I don’t know if you’re the kind of guy who kisses on first dates, but I’m going to kiss you now.”
No, Changmin isn’t the kind of guy to kiss on first dates, just like he’s not the kind of guy to put out on third dates, but Yunho just might get luckier.
By the time his head stops spinning and his heart starts beating again, Changmin’s already pulling Yunho into kiss number two, then three and seven and fifteen, making out wet and hot under the overhang as the sky clears and all the stars come out.
Yunho is just a whole bunch of firsts and too many superlatives, so Changmin’s not surprised that it’s the clearest and most beautiful night New York has had since ever.
---
School finishes in early May and Changmin spends almost a week at Yunho’s place, mostly just in bed with the older man, talking and laughing and feeding each other, but most importantly, making love. He doesn’t know if he’s ever felt so complete or so happy but Changmin finds himself not giving a damn about much of anything as long as Yunho is at his side. It’s irrational and frightening in a lot of ways but the second Yunho turns to him with a smile, Changmin’s entire mind goes blank of any troubles or worries, his heart kicking into overdrive at an unhealthy pace, tripping over beats and stuttering as love chokes off his breath.
Falling in love is so calm and unexciting, Changmin thinks. They were strangers that met on the subway, became friends, went on dates until they counted themselves as a dating couple, then slept together. It’s so unassuming and normal and mundane that he boggles to think of how deep he’s in already, how utterly helpless he is to Yunho’s smile and touch.
---
“Changmin-ah, we need to talk.”
Soap opera music starts playing in Changmin’s head and he looks up from where his head is pillowed on Yunho’s chest. Those words have never brought good things, in television and in real life, and Changmin stays silent, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
Yunho sits up and pulls him into a hug, chin settled on the younger man’s shoulder. “I got into law school,” he starts off.
“That’s great,” Changmin says immediately, kissing Yunho’s ear, fingers clenching on his shoulders. It’s a defensive, quiet plea, begging Yunho not to go far, words he could never bring himself to say.
“The competition was crazy and I didn’t think I could get in, but I did,” Yunho continues, “and I just can’t turn the offer down. You know how much I wanted to get into law school and I’ve already taken a year off and I really-”
“Just tell me where.”
“Stanford.”
“That’s wonderful,” Changmin whispers after a long, uncomfortable silence. “I’m really happy for you.”
“In California.”
“I wish you all the best.”
“Changmin,” Yunho says, almost pleads, pulling back to look into Changmin’s eyes. “Changmin, don’t.”
“You’re going to be just fine,” Changmin says, turning his face away. “The best lawyer ever.”
“I love you.”
Changmin’s eyes can’t help but go back to Yunho’s face, body almost shutting down to see a bright sheen of tears in Yunho’s eyes. “When’s your flight?”
Yunho bites his lip in frustration and reaches out, his shoulders sagging in defeat when Changmin slides off the bed altogether, hand closing around nothing. “August third.”
“So a month and a half away.”
“Changmin, please, I love you.”
Changmin shakes his head, shrugging his shoulders as he pulls his clothes on, pulling them out from under Yunho’s, finding them scattered all over the bedroom floor. Love has never looked more like a battleground and there’s no one here to help bandage his wounds, not when the only person who can is the one who’s causing them. “Don’t worry,” he says with a shaky smile, “even if I lose you, I’ll get you back.”
“You won’t lose me-”
“Yes I will,” Changmin cuts in, looking at the corner of Yunho’s mattress, “you’re leaving, aren’t you?”
To that, Yunho has no reply, and he can only watch helplessly as Changmin disappears out his door. The younger man doesn’t pick up any of his calls, doesn’t respond to any of his texts, and Yunho finally falls into an exhausted sleep at around 4 in the morning, phone clutched tightly in his hand.
Changmin doesn’t cry until his phone stops ringing for good, walking outside to wander aimlessly, wondering what to do with a broken heart. He’s the living definition of pathetic fallacy as the skies cloud over and the rain suddenly comes down in torrents, drenching him to the bone within seconds. It’s flash rain, coming just a beat slower than the hurt, and Changmin finds himself inside the park he and Yunho went to for a date weeks ago. He finds the exact same bench Yunho had kissed him on and folds into himself right there, crying and crying and crying until the tears no longer come, tilting his face up to the pouring rain to feel all the cold tears he’s meaning to shed.
---
Changmin finally picks up his phone a week later and they meet up at Changmin’s place. Yunho doesn’t want to but agrees to Changmin’s request that they break up on August 3rd, because it’s meaningless to love someone when there’s no way to love them across the country. Changmin doesn’t believe in long distance relationships just like Yunho doesn’t believe in giving up what you love most in life but he doesn’t want to argue with the younger man when he’s the one that’s leaving.
They make love often, talk of the future like nothing’s wrong, laugh and goof off together like they always have. Yunho almost asks Changmin to come with him every single day but always swallows the words back, knows that Changmin can’t drop everything just for him.
August first comes and goes and Changmin helps Yunho pack, refusing to cry in the older man’s presence. He catches sight of Yunho’s teary eyes and bops him on the head, smiling as strong as he can, hugging him tight.
“I don’t want to break up,” Yunho whispers into Changmin’s neck, “I love you.”
Those three words again. “It’s for the best,” Changmin says through the lump in his throat, blinking rapidly, “who knows what kind of people you’ll meet in California?”
There’s a long silence and Yunho finally lets go, pulling away to look into Changmin’s eyes, wiping at his own. “You’re always the logical, rational one, even to the end, huhn?” he asks with a tinge of bitterness, “Always doing what makes the most sense.”
Changmin feels his heart cramp with pain and smiles instead, shrugging helplessly. “We had a good run.”
“Changmin-ah…” Yunho whispers, “if I didn’t know you, I’d rather not know.”
They look at each other in silence and Changmin turns away first, feeling so suffocated by love and pain for the other man that all he can do is cry softly, wiping at his eyes like a child. Yunho collects him in a hug and Changmin clings on all night, wondering why he had to fall into something that he’s taken care not to say or explain to Yunho, and yet, the older man seems to know anyway.
---
Yunho’s friend Jaejoong sends him off to the airport and even Yoochun goes. No amount of pleading could get Changmin out of the apartment because nothing could make him willingly go to see off the man who has his heart as if he’s okay with him leaving at all.
He’s thought weeks and weeks about this, how he could delay Yunho’s plane, odd weather reports be damned. New York could see heavy snowfall throughout all of summer, and if that doesn’t ground the plane, he’ll have thunder and lightning storms every single day and night so that not a single flight will get out of the state.
But he can’t hold Yunho back from something so great, no matter how much he wants to. Yunho deserves better than that.
Changmin watches from his window as a small plane streaks slowly across the sky, endless blue without a single cloud in sight. It’s the perfect weather for flying.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Changmin whispers, fingertips pressed to the glass, four confessions for every one of Yunho’s that he never replied to, “I love you, I always have, I love you.”
---
There are a few emails in the beginning, Yunho always sending them once every two weeks to let Changmin know that he’s doing well. A new address comes in case Changmin wants to visit, random pictures as well: Yunho’s new house, the beach, Rodeo Drive, Yunho with a pimp hat on and a dorky smile to counteract its effects. Changmin usually replies with something shorter and less personal and halfway through the year, the emails stop coming altogether.
He has all the pictures saved on his computer in a folder he’s labelled with a simple heart.
Changmin doesn’t know how many tears he’s shed anymore. Yunho isn’t his first love but Yunho is his first real love, the one that really counts, and he knows that Yoochun has begged over the phone for Yunho to come back to New York, if not for Changmin’s sake, then at least for everyone else’s. It doesn’t rain every single day but it is dark and cloudy endlessly. Changmin tries his best for a spot of sunshine and it lasts all of three minutes in the early mornings when he’s trapped between dreams and reality, still asleep enough to reach over to feel for Yunho’s warmth on the other side of the bed.
He works his ass off all year, handing in all of those admissions essays he’s stayed up late to write, from back when he had Yunho’s constant encouragement to help him along. Graduation comes and goes and he goes partying with Yoochun and Jaejoong and Junsu, letting loose all his frustrations and pain by getting piss ass drunk, hammered, sloshed, just completely smashed out of his face.
Jaejoong hangs up the call he’s been on for the past hour and loosens Changmin’s deathgrip around his neck. “Yah, that was Yunho.”
“Nng,” Changmin grunts, then blinks as recognition slowly filters through his brain, sobering him up in seconds. “What did he say?”
“Congratulations.”
Changmin spends the rest of the night clinging to Yoochun instead, sobbing soundlessly, so pitiful that they all end up laughing so hard they fall on their asses. Changmin’s hiccupping and laughing and crying, falling everywhere with tears in a crazy mess all over his face, and asks Jaejoong right before he passes out to help him pack for sunny California.
---
Yoochun sends Changmin off at the airport by waving a white hanky, a dare he lost to Jaejoong in a drinking match Changmin had been unconscious for, actually using it after a while to blow his nose and wipe his face. Jaejoong rolls his eyes and claps Changmin hard on the back, hugging him tight, wishing him all the best.
“No logic or theories or reason,” Jaejoong says firmly, holding onto Changmin’s shoulders. Even though he has to tilt his face up just to look into Changmin’s eyes, Changmin feels incredibly small.
“None,” he agrees softly.
“Just take his hand, hold your breath, and never let go, because you’ve lost him once and you’ll get him back but that’s not something you can leave to chance.”
“Yes hyung.”
“I’ll come back to haunt you if you fail.”
Changmin blinks. “Are you terminally ill and fated for death in the near future?”
Jaejoong punches him hard in the arm. “You piss me off and my blood pressure’s going to be the end of me, that’s what!” He laughs rich and affectionate, ruffling Changmin’s hair, and Changmin smirks when Jaejoong has to stand on his toes to do it. “Come back and visit, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Sure,” Jaejoong says with a roll of the eyes, “I believe you.”
“Bye hyung, thanks for everything.”
“We love you too, Changmin-ah.”
Changmin only turns back once as he walks through security with his luggage, his heart at peace to see Yoochun’s miserably smiling face and Jaejoong’s turned back, smiling wide as Yoochun reaches out to Jaejoong to share his snotty hanky.
---
The captain makes an announcement on the intercom once they’re in the air that they’re headed into a few storm clouds so there may be turbulence. Changmin stares out the window and glares until the clouds go away and another announcement comes on ten minutes later to apologize for the slight visual confusion.
The passengers all look a little uneasy and Changmin just smiles serenely out the window, fluffing the clouds up as he makes the day warmer.
---
Nobody picks him up at the airport, obviously, and Changmin hands the taxi driver the address that Yunho emailed him almost a year ago, hoping that the older man hasn’t moved. He’s finally starting to get anxious and the clear, sunny day suddenly turns partly cloudy, and once Changmin actually arrives at Yunho’s doorstep, there are ominous thunder rolls in the distance.
The door opens just as he brings his hand up to knock and Changmin literally stops breathing at the sight before him. Yunho stands there in a simple black tank top and sweats, dark frames sitting on a high nose, eyes wide with confusion and surprise.
“Changmin?” he asks, dropping the popsicle he had been eating right on the front steps.
“Who is it?” A decidedly female voice calls from inside and Changmin turns on his heels, pulling his luggage with him, walking away as fast as he can.
---
Yunho stares after Changmin for a good minute and a half, just watching a retreating back until his friend from study group walks up to ask who it was. He just huffs with exasperation and runs out of the house to chase after the younger man, running down the street in his socks.
“Changmin!” he yells, growling when Changmin only makes those impossibly long legs walk even faster, “Damn it Changmin, will you just wait?!”
He ends up having to sprint and catch Changmin by the arm before they can come to a stop, all of his angry words dying and disappearing once he sees the tears running down Changmin’s cheeks.
“I’m telling you now that you misunderstood,” Yunho says plainly.
“What, that a year can take you really far?” Changmin asks, laughing bitterly, “I should’ve known. You’re too perfect to stay on the market for a whole year, huhn?”
“You think I’m perfect?” Yunho jumps when a loud crack of thunder sounds. “Changmin-ah, she’s-” He groans in exasperation when a sheet of rain suddenly pours over their heads. “She’s from my study group!” he hollers, “you know, the kind of person you can be friends with without becoming romantically or sexually involved? Friends, remember? Those things. Friennnnnnds.” Yunho knows he’s being kind of mean but Changmin had been the one who had wanted to break up. “Come inside with me!”
“What for?” Changmin mumbles, hoping against hope, “Isn’t it too much of me to ask you to take me back?”
“What part of ‘I love you’ do you not understand?”
Changmin looks up hesitantly, his mind immediately wiping blank of all thoughts as soon as he looks into Yunho’s eyes. “Still, even now?”
“Especially now,” Yunho replies, walking closer until they’re pressed together, wanting to shield Changmin from the rain, “I love you. Please come home?”
There’s only one beat of silence before Jaejoong’s words echo through his brain. “I am home,” Changmin whispers and drops his luggage to cup Yunho’s cheeks, wiping away the uncertainty he sees in the older man’s face, dragging the only love he’s ever really known into a kiss he’d be glad to drown in.
He ignores the way the rain stops and rainbows start popping out left and right, but appreciates it when a column of sunshine cuts through the clouds to spotlight on the two of them.
---
Yunho sends his study group home and drags Changmin’s suitcase to the balcony, taking out all of the younger man’s clothes to hang to dry when they can’t all fit in the dryer. He gets through showing the kitchen and the set of couple mugs he had bought just in case Changmin came to visit before Changmin pulls him to the bedroom where they stay for most of the week.
There’s a lot of making up and making out and making love and Changmin easily calls the place home.
“You know,” Yunho murmurs into Changmin’s hair, “you broke my heart back in New York.”
“I know,” Changmin replies, kissing Yunho’s neck as he wiggles a bit to get impossibly closer, using very little of Yunho’s king-sized mattress, “I broke my own heart too.”
Yunho runs his fingers through Changmin’s thick hair and smiles when his lover mewls with pleasure, kissing the tip of Changmin’s nose affectionately. “I’m glad you got into Stanford’s medical program. You’re a genius, you know that? And now we can be together for all kinds of forever.”
“Birds of a feather.” Changmin laughs softly when Yunho gives him an adorably confused look. “Nevermind, just give me a kiss.”
Yunho complies readily, giving Changmin far more than just one, holding him tight and safe. “So when are you finally going to tell me?”
“That I love you?” Changmin smiles and pulls Yunho in for a few more kisses. “Right now, I’m telling you right now. I love you. I love you I love you I love you I love you!”
“And that’s why you chased me all the way across the country to show up on my doorstep, right?”
Changmin laughs and pulls Yunho in for a long, sweet kiss, blushing as he nods. “What can I say? You’re my sunshine.”
---
so...i'm totally in a writing slump (cough 2 months of nothing cough), so i apologize if that was boring/awkward/stilted. rofl. oh well, i'm just trying to write again. 8D and i still owe 239487324 people fic, whee. 8DDDD